Fluidic and spa nozzles are widely known in the art. See for example the following patents:
U.S. Pat. Nos.Inventor3,471,091Baker4,151,955Stouffer4,227,550Bauer4,325,235Bauer et al4,407,032Bauer et al4,416,030Reynoso4,800,046Malek et al4,982,459Henkin4,985,943Tobias et al5,095,558Howard5,269,029Spears et al5,495,627Leaverton5,810,257Ton6,378,146Johnston6,401,273Fung et al
The present invention incorporates fluidic oscillators adaptable for submerged operation, e.g. for spa use, which can be caused to sweep or not sweep a jet of water with simple manual adjustment from the front of the device. In addition, the frequency of oscillation or sweeping of the water jet into the spa can be changed by adjusting the length and size of the inertance loop plates attached to the walls of the fluidic element itself. The inertance plates have inertance loop-forming grooves formed therein, one end of each inertance plate, forming a loop groove being juxtaposed over an aperture to a control passage and the other end of the loop groove being juxtaposed over a pass-through port or passage to the corresponding end of the loop on the loop groove in the opposing inertance plate to thereby form the frequency determining loop connecting the control ports of the fluidic oscillator.
The invention also features a mode disc which is secured to the front of the fluidic in such a manner as to allow it to be manually rotated by a spa user to change the outlet geometry of the fluidic element and thus the character of the fluidic stream. In one position, the mode ring has a slot which aligns with and provides a continuation of the fluidic exit geometry and thus allows the water jet to oscillate. Upon rotation of 90°, for example, the slot is perpendicular to the fluidic exit geometry, and this results in the edges of the oscillating wave being backloaded so that the output is a straight focused jet. The shape of the rectangle can be made with the generally round section to control the feel of the jet in the jet mode. In addition, it can be adjusted to angles in between to achieve progressively narrower oscillations. The mode control disc has a pair of depressions or slots to each side of the slot in the mode disc to enable easy and firm grasping between the user's fingers.
Air is routed through a central control valve. Air enters the rear of the spa nozzle housing and is kept separated from the water passages by O-rings. The air passes through two channels along either side of a water conditioning passage. The air goes to the top and bottom inertance plates of the fluidic oscillator. The inertance plates have an air channel in them to carry the air to an air entrainment hole or port downstream of the power nozzle.
Thus, the object of the invention is to provide an improved fluidic spa nozzle. A further object of the invention is to provide an improved fluidic spa nozzle which incorporates a manually movable mode-change disc to control the sweeping of the jet back and forth in the spa.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved fluidic spa nozzle which incorporates inertance loop plates which are interconnected by a pass-through. Another object of the invention is to provide a structure which enables the air to be introduced into the spa nozzle just downstream of the power nozzle and to maintain the inertance loop substantially free of air and thus maintain the inertance loop operable.
The inertance loop is comprised of a pair of plates secured to said top and bottom walls, respectively, each plate has a groove cut therein forming the inertance loop and having one end of said groove juxtaposed over an aperture in one of said control ports and the opposite end of said groove being juxtaposed over a passage passing between the top and bottom walls to interconnect with the end of a groove of opposing plates secured to the top and bottom walls. The spa tub nozzle includes a water ingestion port in the passage for purging air from said inertance loop.